Brooke May Anderson avoids jail for role in stealing, dumping toys, tools from East Kalgoorlie Primary School

A mother-of-two has narrowly avoided jail after admitting her role in stealing toys and tools from a Kalgoorlie-Boulder primary school before dumping them in the bush. Brooke May Anderson appeared in Kalgoorlie Magistrates Court on Monday, where she pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary and stealing. The court was told the 25-year-old and a co-accused work colleague of hers — who has not yet entered pleas to his charges — broke into East Kalgoorlie Primary School in August. Police prosecutor Sen. Const. Matthew Fullgrabe said the pair stole a large timber mud kitchen, a car play frame, a jumbo outdoor connect four game, and an outdoor storage box filled with toys. Sen. Const. Fullgrabe said they then cut a hole in the school’s shed and took tools, including a high-pressure cleaner, leaf blower and an electric mower. The items were stolen two months after students were welcomed back to the campus following a mercury scare that forced the school to close for four months. Anderson’s defence lawyer told the court his client, who did not have a history of stealing, “panicked” after committing the offence and decided to dump the items in bushland. He said his client and the co-accused were out for a drive “scavenging” when they made the “bad decision” to break into the school. The lawyer told the court drugs and alcohol were not a factor in what he described as an “opportunistic” and “pointless exercise”. He said the offending was at the “lower end of the scale” and fines would be an appropriate penalty. Sen. Const. Fullgrabe said stealing from a primary school was a “low” thing to do, with the offence affecting the school’s 140 students. He said Anderson had “absolutely no right” to take the items and suggested an imprisonment penalty should not be off the table. Magistrate Paul Lyons said the need to deter others in the community from committing similar offences was important in this case. “Schools have a hard enough job getting resources to educate young people as it is,” he said. Mr Lyons said the offending was too serious for fines but “just barely” decided not to sentence Anderson to a term of imprisonment, taking into account her limited record. Anderson was sentenced instead to a 10-month community corrections order with program and supervision requirements. Speaking to the Kalgoorlie Miner in August the day the items were discovered missing, principal Sally Fowler said the theft came after a difficult year. “After an already challenging year, it is extremely disappointing as the loss of this equipment impacts all of our students,” Ms Fowler said. “The play equipment taken provides students with the opportunity to not only play but to practice a range of social, emotional and physical skills. “Our kindy and pre-primary were very upset to find their favourite play equipment missing.”